Examining Hochul's Five-Year Residential Development Strategy
Governor Kathy Hochul's Affordable Housing Plan Progressing Towards Goal
As we approach the midpoint of Governor Kathy Hochul's five-year affordable housing plan, the initiative is making significant strides towards its goal of creating and preserving 100,000 affordable housing units across New York State.
Current Status
As of June 2023, approximately 26,000 to 30,000 affordable housing units have been built or preserved. This includes a mix of new construction and rehabilitation of existing affordable housing stock. The plan is being implemented through a combination of state funding, public-private partnerships, and coordination with local governments and nonprofit organizations.
Geographical Distribution
The majority of the units completed or preserved by mid-2023 were concentrated in New York City, given the city’s acute housing affordability challenges and denser population. Significant efforts were also focused on Long Island and Westchester County. Upstate New York had fewer completed units comparatively, but several projects were underway in cities like Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester as part of the plan’s statewide reach.
Queens had the second-highest number of units, with about 1,200 units either currently under construction or preserved, while Staten Island had the least number, with just one project and 75 homes.
The Dashboard
The Housing Plan Dashboard, featuring multi-family developments, was launched by the Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) on their homepage. The dashboard includes over 350 projects that are either completed or under construction, encompassing a little over 38,000 units. However, it's important to note that the discrepancy between the number of units on the dashboard and the 65.1k number featured at the bottom of the dashboard is due to delays in reporting on the final locations of projects funded through state dollars awarded to local administrators.
Future Plans
Nearly 180 projects are listed as "under construction" on the dashboard, indicating that the momentum is likely to continue in the remaining years of the plan (2024-2027). The state is more than halfway through the current five-year plan for affordable housing, and ongoing investments in rental assistance, homeownership programs, and infrastructure improvements are expected to accelerate delivery.
Historical Context
The state's affordable housing plan, initiated by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was included in the state budget passed in 2017. In her first budget as governor, Hochul announced a plan to build or preserve 100,000 units of affordable housing within five years through $25 billion in state investments. The state agency responsible for affordable housing, Homes and Community Renewal, stated that it hit the goal of building or preserving 100,000 affordable units between 2017 and 2022.
Gov. Kathy Hochul negotiated the Housing Compact in 2024 with the goal of building 800,000 new housing units over the next decade, which is a testament to her commitment to addressing New York's housing affordability challenges. It appears that Hochul is replicating the success of the previous five-year plan from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
For more detailed and updated figures or specific project lists, those are typically available through New York State’s Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) agency reports or official press releases after June 2023.
- The Governor Kathy Hochul's affordable housing plan, which aims to create and preserve 100,000 affordable housing units across New York State, is a significant policy-and-legislation initiative in the realm of politics.
- The progress of the affordable housing plan is exemplified in the general-news, with the majority of the units completed or preserved by mid-2023 found in densely populated areas like New York City and Long Island, while upstate cities like Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester also see substantial development.
